Don’t Discount the Discount – Watch Dogs from Ubisoft

Why did I call this article what I did? Well, the game is about $15 USD and this is just because it has dropped in price, not because it isn’t an excellent game. My plan is to review the inexpensive gems that are more than worth the money.

Ubisoft is a game company that tends to release staples in any gamer’s collection. Their most popular franchises include the Rainbow SIX series and the Assassin’s Creed games. Watch Dogs was promoted as “Assassin’s Creed meets the future” and I really feel like they delivered what they promised.

NOTE: I played this on the Xbox One console.

Gameplay
This game is one of those that you can’t really nail it down to only one genre. There is a tech, stealth, driving, shooting, and small puzzles. All of them work well but I o have one gripe: the driving. It is very loose and takes some time to adjust to the handling of the vehicles. Sometimes in a game, there is at least one vehicle that is the best to use but in this game, they’re all pretty terrible. I think a lot of the problem is that I own GTA V and Forza Motorsport 5 for the X-box One. Both of them have excellent car mechanics so having gone from them to this game is kinda unfair. That being said, everything else has been finely tuned to create a great experience. The game doesn’t exactly start of as a shooter but the further in to the story you get, the more puzzle-like obstacles and gunning you end up doing. Chicago is not only the backdrop for the game but it is also your weapon. You can control stop lights, car carriers, billboards….pretty much anything that can be connected to by your phone. Using these elements can help take out people chasing you or a security guard walking past a breaker box can be taken out with a well-timed electrical explosion.

Graphics and Sound
The game is busy with visuals but not to the point where it may seem overwhelming. You just get a feel that you are running around the bustling streets of Chicago. And there is no shortage of content. You end up stealing someone’s information and the next phone that you hack, you might be reading their text messages or hearing their phone conversations. I have been playing this for a while now and I haven’t come across info that has been redundant or repetitive. The images are clean and look like you’re are playing on a next-gem system. The signals coming from your phones to the Wi-Fi systems are a little pixelated but I thin that’s so it doesn’t look like Spider-man’s webbing is shooting from the top of your phone.

Audio has a lot going on too with all of the city sounds. I typically play with 5.1 surround sound headphones and there is so much going on. There is also an mp3 player that you can play while driving or exploring the city with music that you download from the NPCs (non-player characters) in the game. Like most games, the use of the surround sound is excellent so as you move, the sound moves with you.

My Take
Watch Dogs is a fun game with a lot of extra things to do aside form the campaign. The story is a little predictable but the characters that you encounter are pretty cool. The game mechanics are fun with you running around, hacking people and cameras on the fly, and using the city as a weapon. You can pick this up for around $20 or less and it is totally worth it.